Endeavor's Insecurity
by Stephen Ratliff
Summary: Marrissa Story - The crew of the Endeavor is insecure in many ways after Star Fleet responds Marrissa's appointment of command staff.
1. Prologue

Endeavor's Insecurity

_Author's Note: _

_This story was written as a sequel to Endeavor's Beginning, but got stuck. It may be one of the few Marrissa Stories that I may resume writing, so I have decided to post it here. At present there is this prologue and two chapters complete and postable. Reviews and suggestions may result in me resuming. Pleas for more ... I don't write that fast._

_Stephen_

Prologue

Counselor's Log

Starship Endeavor

Counselor Deanna Riker recording

I have temporarily transferred to the Endeavor in order to help the recovery of the crew after the pervious command crew died in the line of duty. While I have been seeing a heavy caseload due to that, I do not believe this is the chief problem on the Endeavor.

The Command Crew of the Endeavor is almost entirely new to their posts. They are, in my and others opinion deserving of the posts, if a little young. However, they aren't yet confident in their posts, and it shows.

I've know Captain Marrissa Picard since she was two years old. She is the adopted daughter of my former Captain, and I have helped her through several major crisis's in her life, most notably that of her parents' deaths. That was the last time I sensed her as insecure, until today. She is not sure she can do this job, the job she set out to get seven years ago. I do not believe this will impact her ability command, at this time, though she is swiftly approaching her threshold on dealing with the minor annoyances of command.

Commander Jay Gordon, however, is adapting well to his position, but for him this is a change of ship instead of job. I may have to prompt him to take some of the load off of Marrissa.

Chief Engineer and Acting Second Officer Clara Sutter is the youngest member of the Endeavor's command crew, and the youngest officer on this ship. Of course, the Captain is younger than everyone save her first officer and Clara, making this a very young command. Clara has thus far adapted to the role of Chief Engineer, but insists that her role as Second Officer is only temporary. Marrissa hopes to make sure it's not, and is currently battling with Personnel on the matter.

Marrissa's choice as Security Chief is perhaps the most unsure of the crew. She never expected the Captain to choose her as the new security chief. I think Lieutenant Asami Nishihata reminds Marrissa of herself, save that Asami is five years older than her Captain. Asami shows much of the tentative behavior that I observed of Marrissa when she took up her post as Security Chief on the Enterprise, five years ago.

The pilots on the ship are practically in an uproar over the promotion of Lieutenant Paul Isley to Chief CONN Officer. At present, the resenting undercurrent in that department is taking up much of my time.

In short, the problems among the command crew alone justify my presence. Captain Marrissa Picard should be commended for recognizing the need.

End Counselor's Log.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

It had been a long time since Marrissa had even been in Stellar Cartography on a starship. Once upon a time, it had been a room which she had wanted to live in. When she was working on her quantum filament project her teacher had gotten her an hour's use of the room. She'd spent the first ten minutes just staring at the stars projected on the dark blue walls.

Today she had two reasons for being in Stellar Cartography. The first was because a dispute over sensor resources had developed between two members of the staff, and the second was because she wanted to see if her work on quantum strings was still valid. Technically the sensor resource problem was more Jay's job, as First Officer, but she understood the field of stellar cartography much better than he did. So she'd decided to preempt his actions on the matter and deal with it herself, leaving Jay to handle the ongoing problem with the pilots.

Neither of the two officers she needed to speak to where in yet, so she brought up her old program and began to add recent sightings of quantum filaments to the old data she'd used almost a decade before.

She was still working ten minutes later when the door opened behind her. Marrissa wouldn't have noticed, except for the argument that quickly developed.

"Quantum Filament sightings … a much neglected field of study," a low-pitched voice said.

"There have been plenty of studies out there over the last two hundred years if you'd just bother to look them up," a higher pitched voice said.

"Oh no, not more on how people neglect the old studies preferring to go with the newest and latest theory," the lower voice said. "I tell you all the comprehensive data is in the appendix of that article. Even if you don't accept the young girl's conclusions, the data is there and available. She even got data from the early Vulcan star charts. You do this with every single study released in the last two decades."

"I didn't with Soval's study of cosmic string movement," the high voice said. Marrissa just had two more to enter now.

"He's a colleague of yours from way back, and credits you for that frequency modulation chain that really doesn't work," the low voice said. "I wonder where the Captain is? She's supposed to be here to talk about our sensor requests."

"Yes, where is she, and you, what are you doing here?" the high voice said placing his hand on Marrissa's shoulders.

Marrissa allowed herself to be spun around. "Finishing up a little work on a private research project," Marrissa said, as she came to a stop facing the two Stellar Cartographers. "Doctor Danner, Doctor Faust, you are early … either that or it took longer than I thought to enter the latest data. Computer, run theory prove program Marrissa Two on data set Revised 2269 Science Project."

"Working," the computer said.

"Gentlemen, I have layered on my desk about 12 decks up a pattern of conflicting sensor requests canceling out each other out from both of you since I took command," Marrissa said. "I don't know what causes you to do this, but it stops today."

"And how are you going to stop that?" the deep voiced Doctor Danner said.

Marrissa sat there in her seat a while, staring at the two Cartographers. "From this date forward all sensor requests form Stellar Cartography that either of you wish to submit must have the other's signature on them," she said with a smile. "Should neither of you submit a request by 0900 on any day, well, I find that I'm in need of a little time to search for quantum strings. Rather than let the sensors go idle, I think I'll exercise a little captain's prerogative."

"Program complete," the computer announced.

"But Captain," the two doctors said almost in unison.

"Computer route results to the Ready Room and clear display of additional data," Marrissa ordered, standing up. "I leave it to good scientific debate for you both to decide Stellar Cartography's sensor usage. Good day Gentlemen."

Marrissa exited the room, only to hear of the fight that developed after she left from Lt. Nishihata, Doctor Johnson, and Clara.

Lieutenant Asami Nishihata had a five centimeter advantage over her new Captain in height. It was the only advantage she thought she had. She'd been on the Endeavor since she had left the academy five years ago. She wasn't a expert with swords. Her phaser accuracy wasn't in the top ten percent in the fleet. She was near the bottom in security on the Endeavor in unarmed combat. The only thing she had going over most of her counterparts in security was that she'd taken a couple more command courses.

At one time, Nishihata had hoped to take the command track, but she'd been sidelined into Security. Her advisor had called her unsure, tentative. Those were two traits she'd tried to overcome since she had changed majors.

Today, she'd been less that successful. It had started when she tried to break up the fight in Stellar Cartography. She had failed. Her nose still hurt from where it had been broken. Then there was the mysterious case of the disappearing interphasic space generator. She'd stumbled through the questioning, having no idea exactly what an interphasic space generator did.

Her senior officers were not following her procedures … and to top it all off, her boyfriend had just broken up with her because of her new post.

Nishihata punched her pillow hard, before burying her tear stained face in it. Maybe tomorrow would be better. Maybe it would be a lot worse.

Lieutenant Commander Jay Gordon was one of those souls who took everything in stride. Not many people had ever seen him get mad. His role as First Officer was in many ways his role in life. He supported people, made sure the little details were handled on the ship which the Captain couldn't attend to. Of course, on a ship the size of the Endeavor, he needed a lot of help. The First Officer's Personal Staff was much greater on the Endeavor with it's seven fifty people than the two fifty on the Stargazer, his previous post. There he just had a yeoman, and the quartermaster/bartender.

On the Endeavor, Jay was directly over the Quartermaster with his staff of five and had two yeomen, all of which where twice his just about eighteen years. Tomorrow was, in fact his birthday. This piece of data hadn't yet gotten around to the rest of the Endeavor's crew, and Jay felt it quite likely that the two officers on the ship who did know it would have forgotten it. This didn't bother him. Being so young at such high of rank had made him prefer that his age not be brought up. It only led to problems, and now that he finally had to shave every once in a while, no one was bringing his age up when they met him anymore, to his relief.

It was even worse for his Captain and long-time friend. Marrissa had been the youngest Ensign, Lieutenant junior grade, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander, Commander, and now Captain. True someone else now held that youngest Ensign mark, but that didn't stop Marrissa from suffering undo stress as a result of the attention that came with those marks.

Jay had long attempted to keep his best friend on an even keel in the face of great stress. For the most part he'd been very successful. Recently he'd finally admitted what his other reason for following Marrissa. His mother had been right when she'd said that he was madly in love with Marrissa. It had just taken him five years to admit that.

At the moment, he stood right outside the Captain's quarters. He tried to think of it as that. If he thought of it as Marrissa's room, he was highly likely to totally forget the duty he'd come to talk about. Marrissa's room had long been some place to relax and explore a bit, after all. He pressed the chime on the Captain's Door.

Marrissa's soft voice responded to the chime, "Enter." The door opened and just three steps into the room he spotted Marrissa and all thoughts of official business left. She wore a deep blue crotch length gown, as she stood by the replicator, having just picked up a glass of what he quickly identified as strawberry wine. Her hair was unbound, cascading down to her shoulders in waves, the product of a recent visit to Essex. "Your usual I assume?"

Jay could only nod, as she ordered a large root beer for him. She handed it too him and took a seat on the sofa. Marrissa tucked her feet under her as he sat down next to her on a overstuffed chair. He could see her deep red panties, and it was a bit distracting until she smiled and shifted positions. She held the glass between her thumb and forefinger, as the red wine moved inside it.

"So, Jay." Marrissa smiled at him as he tried to collect himself again. It wasn't easy when she was sitting there looking like the Princess she was.

"I just came from the Science Section, Lieutenant Commander Ursel just turned in his resignation as Chief Science Officer," Jay said. It hadn't been entirely unexpected. Ursel had a record of threatening to resign to pursue research instead of running the department.

"Then we promote Markovic to fill the spot and count our blessings," Marrissa said. She shifted again, revealing those red panties again. They were tight and hid none of her lower body's contours. "I'll want to see him in my office tomorrow to give him the good news. Any other ship's business?"

"No, not that I can think of," Jay said. Marrissa was just too darn distracting in that gown. He moved across the gap to join her on the sofa. Somehow the wine glass and his own mug of root beer made it to the table before they started kissing. There was just a teaspoon's worth of the strawberry wine swirling in the glass as he gathered his girl friend into his embrace.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Captain Marrissa Picard entered the bridge of the Endeavor to discover that Clara had just started on adding what Marrissa believed was an essential feature, a chair for her First Officer to sit in, next to her. Some ships didn't have one, as it was unnecessary when the First Officer also held another post. The Endeavor, however, was big enough that a First Officer wasn't supposed to be doubling up. She was just short of the option to have a Second Officer who wasn't doubling up, actually, not that there were many sole Second Officers in the fleet. "Good Morning, Number Two," Marrissa said, with a big smile.

"Someone had way too good of a night last night, and stop calling me that," Clara said, looking up from the panel she'd pulled up from the floor, before addressing the alien woman behind her. "Ensign Dyrit, it looks like I'm going to need that number sixty-four connector after all. It should be next to the model warp core on my desk."

As the Ensign entered the turbolift, Marrissa spoke up again. "I take it you're still against taking the Second Officer's post on a permanent basis."

"I'm simply the wrong person for the job, Marrissa," Clara said, as she removed a sequence of isoliner chips. "I can command in pinch, but I'm an Engineer. I deal with switches, conduits, and elbow grease. It runs in the family ... well except for you. If you even touch one of my circuits, it's the airlock for you."

"Be careful, Clara, some might see that as mutiny," Marrissa said. Clara had accepted the original rejection of Star Fleet Personnel for her being Second Officer on more than acting basis. Star Fleet wanted Marrissa to do a more through search. So far she hadn't found anyone better to fill any of the other command slots and Second Officer, and she refused to consider replacing Clara as Chief Engineer.

"I seem to recall Captain Picard once telling me that your first command decision was an act of mutiny," Clara replied, looking up at Marrissa. She stood up, and moved over to where the new chair was laying.

"Generally, when you get your C.O. out of a situation were he'd end up unnecessarily dead isn't considered mutiny," Marrissa replied. "I believe in a no commanding officer left behind process, and unfortunately, Jay does likewise."

"I'd think that it would be a valuable trait in a First Officer," Clara said, pulling the chair over to the opening in the floor she'd made to the right of the Captain's Chair.

"It is, but I'm just waiting for him to start quoting Section 12, paragraph 4," Marrissa said. She'd been given chapter and verse from her father on that section and how it had annoyed him since he'd taken command of the Stargazer in his last letter. The letter had been full of advice, advice that Marrissa fully intended to take where applicable.

"Jay, quote regulations?" Clara chuckled. "He may know them, but I doubt you could get him to quote them. Face it, you've got the most easy going First Officer in the fleet."

"Then you didn't hear about what he did to the officers who he found goofing around instead of guarding the armory," Marrissa shook her head. "They were more out of shape then some of the worst I had in Security on the E-E. They won't be soon though. Jay decided that they're going to begin and end their shift from now on with a run around the outer ring of our saucer section, three laps, full steam. You should have seen Crewman Hatfield imitating Jay's lecture. I didn't know Jay even knew some of those words."

"Jay spends time with the noncom officers, I'm sure he knows a lot more than we've heard," Clara replied. "By the way, have you wished Jay an happy birthday yet?"

"This morning when we woke up together," Marrissa said. "And before you ask, we're both still virgins. Damn him."

"You're still resisting?" Clara responded, pushing a stray hair out of her face.

"Me? Resist? He won't go further than fondling, and then has the bones to tell me that he's making sure I follow my long stated religious intention," Marrissa said, before sending a puff of air up, causing her bangs to flutter.

"Well, I'm done here, for the moment," Clara said, standing up. "Once that connector arrives, have Ensign Dyrit install it, and plug the chair down on it. Then Jay will have some place to sit down up here. Oh, and the Quartermaster wants to talk to you about tonight's party."

...

Lieutenant Bojan Markovic stood before his mirror, straightening his blue science uniform. His once dark hair was now graying at the edges. He still harbored a few regrets about the fact that it was blue, not the red that it had been when he graduated from the Academy. Then Captain Jean-Luc Picard had blunted a lot of those regrets when he'd offered Markovic on of the Enterprise-D's command track slots. Markovic perhaps regretted his rejection of that offer more than he regretted the fact that he was still in the blues of science.

At the time he'd thought that it was the best decision. He had his work in the Enterprise's Science Department with his research that had led to a Tal-Ceti Prize just a few months after the offer, and the open ended assignment as part of the duty officer alternates rotation had filled his need for command.

But the Enterprise had crashed, and Captain Katsuragi hadn't been as nearly open with her command arrangements as Jean-Luc Picard had been on the Enterprise. Still, she had made him number two in Science, even if she wouldn't let Commander Ursel even get halfway through is many attempts to resign and retire as Chief Science Officer.

Acceptance of Ursel's resignation would have been enough to earn Markovic's praise for the new Captain of the Endeavor ... even if he hadn't know her since she was ten. Letting the dotting old man of the Endeavor's Science Department step down was a long overdue action that would give the Captain some breathing room.

Captain. It really sounded strange to call Marrissa that. He still remembered the little girl who had tentatively found a seat at the back of his science class, shy and demure. At first, he had even had suspicions that Marrissa was mute. She had grown out of that though. Unfortunately she had also grown out of her focus on Stellar Science, instead going into Command.

The Universe had lost an excellent student of Stellar Science the day that Marrissa had been trapped in the trubolift with Captain Picard. Markovic had mourned that loss then. Captain's legacies did not last as long as Scientist's did. That was how he'd consoled himself since he'd switched to the blue. He had grown to believe it, too.

...

As Captain, Marrissa found her time a lot less structured than it had been as First Officer of the Enterprise. Everyone else had defined shifts, she on the other hand was considered to be virtually always on duty. Other officers were the duty officers in command of the Bridge. She could sit down whenever she wanted to. It was a strange freedom. True, she did have lots of paperwork and duties to handle, but there was nothing requiring her to do it at a particular time. Still she'd finished the last of today's reems before 1000 hours, and figured that she'd try to keep that as much as possible.

Now she was on her way to the brig. She hoped that a night there would have cooled down her hot headed Stellar Cartographers. If not, well, she'd managed to get some good sensor time looking for minuscule gravitic disturbances that she theorized might indicate the shifts of the insufficient strength quantum filaments, last night. Maybe she'd find a pattern with a little more results. She put on her best smile before the door to the brig opened.

"Doctor Danner, Doctor Faust, sorry about the delay getting to you," she said to the two Stellar Cartographers that occupied the first two cells. "I'm afraid that I got a little bit distracted looking at the data that your night cooling off in the brig allowed me to get. Did you know that Delta Arou has barely detectable gravitic seam 2.3 AUs over its northern pole? I think it might be anchor to the filament that has hit several ships in this sector. If so it would explain a lot."

"I don't care what it explains ... I want out," Doctor Faust said, causing a snap of the force field when he got too close.

"Doctor Faust, you leave when I say you do, not a moment sooner," Marrissa said flatly, before regaining her smile. "By the way Doctor, I read your paper on gravitic waves caused by interstellar space lane traffic. Do you really think that it might effect future stellar formation on a macro scale? I'd think that it would be a micro level issue."

"Everything starts on a micro level, but you repeat the action enough, and it becomes a macro issue!" Doctor Faust replied. "Just look at the results of pulse driven warp drive on the fabric of space-time!"

"True," Marrissa acknowledged. "Doctor Danner, I'm afraid I didn't manage to complete reading your paper on Interstellar Nurseries and Brown Dwarfs. Tell me, have you ever considered doing a shorter paper? I ask because I couldn't find any that were under two hundred. As much as I enjoy Stellar Cartography, I'm afraid my chosen occupation of command doesn't allow me that much time to indulge in my scientific interests."

"I'm afraid that I have lamentably chosen topics that do not lend themselves to briefer papers," Doctor Danner replied, as Doctor Faust got shocked by the force field again.

"Indeed," Marrissa smiled as the door to the brig opened again to admit another officer dressed in science blues. "Gentlemen, this is Lieutenant Markovic. He and I go back quite a bit. In fact he was next in command the first time I took command. I've decided that in the wake of Lieutenant Commander Ursel's resignation last night, he will be filling the post of Chief Science Officer. He'll also be in the bridge commander rotation. Lieutenant Markovic, these are the two stellar cartographers I mentioned."

"Ah, Doctors Danner and Faust, you'll find that I take a more personal interest in sensor allocation than my predecessor," Markovic smiled. "As it so happens, I have looked over both of your research areas, with the able assistance of the Captain. I believe that I have managed to find a sensor allocation that shouldn't inhibit either of your work. You, of course, are welcome to bring scientific objections to things I might not have thought of. Be aware, however, that any time in dispute will be allocated to a former pupil of mine who wishes to update one of her Science Projects."

"Lieutenant, I'll leave you to handle things." Marrissa said, still smiling, tossing one last comment behind her as she exited the brig, "And this time I'll submit the article myself. Oh, and I need to see you at the end of Alpha Shift." The door closed behind her.

...

_Author's Note:_

_This is where I got stuck with it. Jay's Birthday party was supposed to be next, but I never figured out how to write it. This story has a great chance of being revived at some point with proper feedback._

...

The Cast List for this story (in order of appearance):

Commander Deanna Riker (ship's counselor)

Captain Marrissa Picard (commanding officer)

Lieutenant Commander Jay Gordon (First Officer)

Lieutenant Clara Sutter (Chief Engineer and Acting Second Officer)

Lieutenant Asami Nishihata (Chief of Security)

Lieutenant Paul Isley (Chief CONN Officer)

Doctor Danner (Stellar Cartographer)

Doctor Faust (Stellar Cartographer)

Doctor Jackson Johnson (Chief Medical Officer)

Lieutenant Commander Ursel (retiring Chief Science Officer)

Ensign Dyrit (Engineer)

Lieutenant Bojan Markovic (Chief Science Officer)

Ensign Rodrick "Yorrick" Voltimand

Ensign Dane Prince

Ensign Cornelius "Corny" Rosencrantz


End file.
